Electronic photo-albums have become increasingly popular in recent times. These electronic photo-albums typically take the form of a collection of images stored using a non-volatile memory device, from which a user can retrieve the image for displaying on a display device. Usually, the images are gathered in digital form, and may, for example, be scanned by an electronic scanner, down-loaded from the internet or produced by a digital camera. A collection of these images can be stored electronically to create an electronic photo-album, analogous to the traditional family photo-album which uses photographic prints.
Presently, electronic photo-albums take the form of a collection of images, a user of the album being able to associate a caption or brief description with each image. For example, a user can collect a series of family photographs of a wedding, whether from a digital video or still camera, and associate a caption such as the date and a brief description of the event with each Image. If desired, an electronic photo-album can be reproduced from the memory device by a high quality output device, such as a high resolution colour printer, to produce an album substantially similar to a conventional photo-album.
However, these electronic photo-albums do not generally provide management capabilities to efficiently experiment with a plurality of special effects and photo-image repair. Further, they do not provide for the undoing of the effects and repairs in an efficient manner, and in a fasion which ensures the original image is restored.
It is an object of the invention to overcome, or at least ameliorate, one or more of the disadvantages of the prior art.